A Friday morning at the Denver County Courthouse, and 200 people are standing in line.

None of them have actually been charged with anything.

The day before, they all received a text message that looked like an official summons from the District Court of Colorado. The text said they had an unpaid traffic violation. It listed a hearing time of 9 a.m. and warned that failure to appear would result in arrest. It included a QR code that offered the option to pay $6 instead.

The people who scanned the QR code didn’t actually pay $6. They handed over their credit card numbers to scammers, who then used the cards to make unauthorized purchases.

The people who didn’t scan the QR code drove or rode buses to the courthouse, took time off work, arranged childcare, and showed up. That’s when they learned there was no hearing.

Similar scam texts hit residents in Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota, and Virginia in the same window. The Denver-area version specifically targeted Spanish-speaking communities. The Denver County Court has stated clearly: it will never text people about unpaid fines, and it will never use a QR code to do so.

This is the same family of scam as the toll texts and DMV texts that have been rising for the past year, but with a twist. The new flavor borrows the authority of a courtroom, not a tollbooth. The threat is sharper. The script is more convincing. And the QR code does double duty, harvesting payment info from anyone willing to pay, and pulling everyone else to a physical location where they show up confused and embarrassed.

The rule: Courts and DMVs and toll authorities do not send legal notices by text. If you actually owe something, log into the agency’s official website or app yourself.

Sources: CBS Colorado, May 1, 2026 | Denver Gazette

This is one of the cruelest scams running right now, and the FBI just put fresh numbers on it.

The IC3 (the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center) is the federal site where Americans report online fraud. It exists to help victims. Scammers know that, so they pretend to be IC3 employees and contact people who have already been scammed, offering to recover their lost money.

In 2025, the FBI received more than 10,500 complaints about these recovery scams. Estimated losses: $1.4 billion.

Here is how it works. Someone loses money to an investment scam, a romance scam, a tech support scam, anything. A few weeks later, they get a call, an email, or a social media message from a person claiming to be with the FBI or IC3. The message says good news, your money has been located, and they need a small processing fee to release it.

There is no money. There is no agent. The fee is the scam.

Some scammers go even further. They create fake "fellow fraud victim" personas in Facebook support groups for scam survivors. They befriend people who are still raw from being scammed, then introduce them to a "lawyer" or "recovery specialist" who turns out to be another scammer in the same network. People get scammed twice by the same group of criminals, and they don’t realize it until the second wave of money is gone.

Here is what the real IC3 will never do. They will never ask you to pay to recover lost funds. They will never refer you to a company that charges a fee. They will not call you, email you, or message you on Facebook. The only place to report fraud to the FBI is ic3.gov, typed directly into your browser.

The rule: Anyone who reaches out unsolicited claiming to help recover money you have already lost is a scammer. Real federal agencies do not chase you down.

Source: FBI IC3 Public Service Announcement

This one is everywhere on social media right now.

You see an ad. A confident person stands in front of a fancy car or a beach. They promise to teach you how to build a thriving business, make significant money trading crypto or forex, or earn six figures investing in precious metals. There is a free webinar. There is a free guide. There is a friendly Discord community.

The free stuff is the bait.

The FTC issued a fresh warning this week about coaching scams that promise life-changing returns and deliver nothing. After the free webinar, the upsell starts. The course costs hundreds of dollars. Then a "mastermind program" costs thousands. Then "one on one mentoring" costs tens of thousands. Each tier promises that the next tier is where the real magic happens. None of it ever pays off.

The pattern is the same whether the topic is crypto trading, e-commerce, real estate flipping, or precious metals. Real markets do not produce reliable returns that a coach can teach in a weekend. If they did, the coach would be doing the trading, not selling courses.

The biggest tell is what the program is actually selling. If the testimonials are about how much money students made, but the curriculum is mostly about how to recruit more students to the program, that is a multi-level marketing structure dressed up as education. If the trainer’s wealth comes from selling courses (not from the activity they teach), the activity does not work.

The rule: If a coach makes their money selling coaching, the coaching is the product. Ask for verified third-party results before paying for anything.

Source: FTC: How to spot and avoid business coaching scams

Here is the text message that brought 200 people to a Denver courthouse, paraphrased from real reports:

"District Court of Colorado: You have an outstanding traffic violation. A hearing has been scheduled for 9:00 AM. Failure to appear will result in arrest. To resolve this matter and avoid court, pay the $6.00 fine using the QR code below. Court address: Denver City and County Building."

Three things give it away.

The court address is real. That is what makes the rest of the message feel real. Scammers often start with one true detail to lower your guard.

The dollar amount is tiny. Six dollars. That is the trap. The amount is small enough that paying it feels easier than fighting it, easier than driving downtown, easier than calling to verify. Scammers know that a small ask gets your guard down. They also know your credit card number is worth far more than $6.

The QR code is the giveaway. Real courts and real government agencies do not use QR codes for legal notices. Ever. Any official communication will give you a website address you can type into your browser, a phone number you can call, or an in-person address. A QR code is a shortcut to a destination you cannot see in advance, which is exactly what scammers want.

If you receive a text about a court date or a traffic ticket, do not scan, do not click, do not call the number in the text. Look up the court’s real number, call them directly, and ask if there is anything pending.

The rule: Real courts do not text you. Real fines come with paper, a real phone number you can verify, and never a QR code.